For a newbie like me, it is difficult to keep upgrading Python and associated packages while resolving package dependencies. This is where Anaconda comes to my rescue. Anaconda is a free Python distribution and package manager. It comes with lot of pre-installed packages (primarily for data science).

It can be downloaded for Linux from the Continuum’s site https://www.continuum.io/downloads#linux . The instructions for installation on Linux are available on the same site. I have downloaded and installed 64 bit Python 3.6 version on my Linux Mint.

In order to update Anaconda and Python to latest version, you need to run the below command on the Terminal.

However, I continue to have older version of Python. You can see in below screenshot, Python 3.5.2 which I manually installed and Python 2.7.12 which was pre-installed on Linux Mint are still available.

conda update anaconda

On my Linux Mint, I have already updated to Anaconda version 4.4.0 (latest available as of date). This way, it is easy to keep upgrading Python and required packages.

On my PyCharm, I can choose Python 3.6 (installed through Anaconda / conda update) as the project interpreter.

In order to build useful applications, we need Python Libraries or Packages. Majority of such useful pckages can be downloaded from PyPI, the Python Package Index https://pypi.python.org/pypi

Best way to install the packages is by using a tool called pip. We can get pip from https://pip.pypa.io/en/latest/installing.html. However, on Linux Mint, pip is already installed along with Python 2.7.12. Similarly, when I installed Python 3.5.2, pip3 tool is installed. To upgrade to latest pip, you need to run below command on terminal

Python can be installed on Windows, Mac as well as Linux. Since I plan to learn programming on Linux, I was searching for IDE for Python on Linux.

For beginners, IPython, IDLE and pyCharm are good to get started.

IPython can be accessed from Linux terminal. Here, I printed Hello word! (Word as in WordPress 🙂

IDLE is Python’s Integrated Development and Learning Environment. It is coded in Python using tkinter GUI toolkit. It is simple but has quite a number of useful features. Please refer to https://docs.python.org/3/library/idle.html for more documentation.

PyCharm is an IDE from Jetbrains (https://www.jetbrains.com). It is easy to install on Linux Mint. There are 2 versions of the Pycharm IDE – Professional which is a licensed edition. There is also a free Community Edition which can be downloaded. I downloaded Community Edition.

Many years ago, I used to be a Java programmer. In fact, I started my information technology career in the year 1999 as a software developer in a small company which focussed on application software development. During my engineering days, I learnt Fortran and C programming. When I completed my engineering, there was Y2K problem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2000_problem) which helped many job aspirants to jump into IT industry irrespective of their educational background.

During the same time, Java was one of the bleeding edge technologies. There was a saying – ‘To get into IT job, all you need to know is spelling of Java’.

After few years of programming (mainly in Java, Web development, SQL, Database design), like many others, I moved on to project management and with more focus on day to day operations, I gradually lost hold on coding but not the zeal.

Several years later in the current digital world, data analytics caught my attention. I am interested in learning data analytics and visualization. Since few years, I started using Linux Mint Cinnamon OS more frequently on my personal laptop as it is free and open source(FOSS). I was fascinated by Cinnamon Desktop Environment. The website – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Mint, claims most of the Linux Mint is developed in Python language – https://www.python.org/. I was aware of the fact that majority of Unix/Linux development happens in C but was surprised when I saw Python. This was my first encounter /awareness on Python. This is when I started gathering my understanding of Python from internet.

Several books and websites debate on whether to use Python 2 or Python 3. I have noticed that by default, Python 2.7 was installed on Linux Mint 18 (Sarah). When I started learing, I felt that going forward the focus would be on developing Python 3.x as it is the present and future. Hence I started with Python 3.5 interpreter. Fortunately, Python 3.5 is also pre-installed on the latest Linux Mint 18.1 (Serena).

Disclaimer: The opinions and experiences listed on the site are my personal. In some cases, my understanding could be incorrect as I am a beginner to intermediate programmer. Please point out if any correction is required so that I can consider editing the blog.